75-Year-Old Baton Rouge Icon, Sadie Roberts-Joseph, Found Murdered in the Trunk of a Car.
An icon in the Louisiana art society was found dead Friday night and the entire community is in a state of shock.
75-year-old Sadie Roberts-Joseph was a pillar of the Baton Rouge Art Community and she was the founder of the city’s Odell S. Williams Now & Then Museum of African American History.
She was also a crusader to bring back the relevance of Juneteenth, a movement she had been spearheading since 1991.
Mrs. Roberts-Joseph's death was announced on Facebook by Louisiana State Representative C. Denise Marcelle who said, in part, that "My heart is empty... as I learned last night that Ms. Sadie Roberts Joseph was found murdered!"
The Baton Rouge Police Department released a statement just hours ago saying that Mrs. Roberts-Joseph was "a tireless advocate of peace in the community". At this time they aren't releasing any details surrounding her death however, we do know that Mrs. Roberts-Joseph's body was found in the trunk of a vehicle in the 2300 block of North 20th Street, about 3 miles away from her home.
The term "murder" has only been used by Ms. Marcelle however, the last time we checked, 75-year-old women don't climb into trunks to die of natural causes.
Via The Advocate:
"Beatrice Johnson, one of Roberts-Joseph's five sisters, in a family of 12, sat in her living room, trying to absorb the loss of her big sister.
Johnson lives with her family just two doors down from Roberts-Joseph's home on a quiet street in Scotlandville. Despite her sister's volunteer work with the Baton Rouge African-American History Museum and other organizations -- Roberts-Joseph formed (A CRIME PREVENTION ORG.), Johnson saw her older sister often.
"She would come by here every day," Johnson said. "She loved bananas and my husband would purposely buy them for her."
"Friday, she came by," Johnson said. "She had mixed some cornbread, but her oven went out, and she brought it here to put in the oven."
"The bread is still there," Johnson said, gesturing toward her kitchen. "She never came back to get it."
Johnson said that her sister is survived by two children, Jason Roberts and Angela Roberts Mechan. Mechan is a commissioner on the Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission.
Johnson and her sister and their 10 other siblings grew up in Woodville, Mississippi.
The family over the last year lost two of their brothers, Leonard Armstrong of Baton Rouge and Arthur Armstrong of Flint, Michigan."
This is a disgusting crime against one of our elders and pillars of the community. We pray justice is served.
